May I ruin your weekend?

Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to the chart below.  It lists the compensation (as far as we know) of the members of the Tribal Council.  Please make note of the fact that this is only for a six month period, so to get an idea of the actual numbers, they are at least double these.  Understand that this not intended to inspire envy or resentment, but given the lack of actual independent revenue, i.e., excluding grants and backer revenue, you may consider them way out of proportion, and this is just what we know about.  We cannot account for the possibility of “under the table” perks and what the Gaming people get.  You may want to consider the qualifications of the people receiving such compensation.  I leave it to you.

Click to enlarge.

You may want to consider the fact that all the $90 million we have so far borrowed has to be paid back, is spite of any lie you have heard.  If anyone tells you differently, demand that they show you proof to the contrary.  I don’t think that the non-existent revenue from the powwows will cut it any more.  We are so screwed.  Thanks Cedric.

They have turned our Tribe into a den of thieves.

“The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

In the Thursday, October 2 article “Alarms raised on Tribal Council spending,” The Times brings to light what Tribal members have known all along, and what we here at ReelWamps have been pointing out for years.  This Cromwell administration may possibly be the most corrupt and cynical mob ever to run an Indian Tribe.  Financial information is sketchy, and frankly, suspect.  Salaries are way out of proportion for a tribe that has practically zero in actual independent revenue sources.  We would love to see the tax returns of the Council officers.  Even more, we would like to know what kind of financial sleight-of-hand is going on between Genting and the Council and the Gaming commission.  Does it trouble anyone that we borrow the money from Genting to pay the interest on the money that we borrow from them?  Huh?

There are many more questions on our minds.  Some of those were raised in the Times article, for example, the question of Land Into Trust.  Councilman Hendricks raised the issue that LIT can only happen through an act of Congress.  Good luck with that.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is from Nevada, home of the Las Vegas strip.  I’m sure he looks forward to more Indian gaming on the East Coast.

Cromwell’s assertion that Tribe members get a say in the matters through the electoral process is laughable.  Cromwell and his cronies have run at least two crooked elections since gaining control of the process, and all have some cloud or another hanging over them.

Worst of all the sins of the Cromwell administration is their continual efforts to quash dissent and silence even the softest of criticism.  It is nothing new.  It started on the very election day when Cromwell “won” and raided the Tribal information office and the padlocked others.  This very blog somehow disappeared from blogspot.com.  (One wonders whose doing that was?)  Any council member or candidate who dissents does so at his peril.  Richard Oakley was so harassed and left out of the loop that he resigned in disgust.  Carlton Hendricks Jr. was arrested two separate times on the night before an election, once for a non-arrest violation.  (One wonders whose doing that was?)  Carlton Hendricks and Laura Miranda are getting the same cold shoulder as Richard Oakley did.  Do any of you see a pattern here?

To add another Biblical reference, we have asked for bread, and they have given us a stone.  We have asked for a fish, and they have handed us a serpent.  We ask for substance, and all we get is worn out platitudes.

Shovel Ready Ceddie…..Spooked again

Signs sent Shovel Ready Ceddie a message he couldn't take.

Whoever put the signs up had Shovel Ready Ceddie really goin’.  He was all worked up, runnin’ all around.  Shovel Ready spins the BS but even that hasn’t played well with his fan club which had been reduced to Francie and the First Lady (and word is the latter could be in doubt). They call Francie the Deaconess she’s so so righteous ya know.

Shovel Ready was so upset he called all the tribal staff  to a meeting, stood before them,  clutching all the signs he had confiscated shouting that ” They want to know where the $90 million went. It went into land in trust.”  This is where Shovel Ready Ceddie’s sanity comes into  question.The Land in trust trilogy will never end because there is no process for us to complete it legally. Everyone understands this, and so does Shovel Ready Ceddie.   Matter of fact  during the last Sunday meeting,he started that crap about LIT in 60 – 90 days.   Normally his trained seals applaud wildly.  There was silence.

Look at it this way. Who would spend $90 million on a project that can’t be completed  under

Not very representative of the Mashpee

current circumstances ? Well Shovel Ready Ceddie and crew is being paid hefty salaries to allow millions of dollars to be circulated through our tribe and on to other destinations. We know what that is.   Yeah….the lawyers over billed and consultants gouged and over paid staff does nothing.   but it doesn’t add up to $90 million.

Ever notice how Shovel Ready says very little these days?  You don’t hear him talking about keeping documents from the feds…no you don’t. He’ll pretend he knows nothing. Bet they’ll believe that.

Only the numbskulls like the Deaconess and Robbie are silly enough to  deny the federal government information. There’s still time you two, Whistle-bower or witness protection.  Pretty good options.

 

As the sun sets

When Navajo Joe ( Mark Tilden) comes east to do business with the Mashpee, he no longer crosses the bridge.  Shovel Ready Ceddie has to get in his limo and come to Boston.  NJ wants no pictures taken of him in the” tomb,”  “echo chamber” or the so called “government center.” It’s too dangerous.  Navajo Joe has made millions off the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and has brought us nothing but sorrow because he has protected the people who have wounded us over and over.  Now he wants to disassociate himself from these bad  people.

We need to think about where we are in this tribe and why we allowed ourselves to get here.  Outsiders who claim to be our people,and the worst of our people, team up with those who generations before exploited us to bring us to our knees

We have watched one council member and 3 or 4 other tribal members fight $90,000,000 in dirty money.  It’s time to decide whether the tribe is going to surrender or stand up and preserve our traditions.

Our surviving parents and grandparents are too old to fight this fight all over again.  We should  not lay down and let our destiny die.

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Scandal within the scandal

Reel Wamps has been gathering information about the Tribal Housing misappropriations and discrimination for several years. There are many things that have contributed to the complete disintegration of a program that is designed to help fledgling tribes like ours improve the quality of life of their people.  God knows we deserve a break.

Let’s be clear…..the Mashpee are masters of survival and have a nearly 400 year  record to prove it. The benefits of recognition were anticipated as the ultimate reward for years of punishing insult, encroachment and disdain from Cape Codders who resented our right to exist.

But that battle is nothing compared to sustained abuse of the 1001 by the Cromwell Administration that began in 2009 and is ongoing right now today.We’re not going to talk about the $90,000,000 debt that is clearly a money laundering mechanism for the investor Genting.

THE MELTDOWN BEGINS

Let’s just look at Housing. After Alice died,  for almost 5 years, there was never  a permanent  director or honest broker in Housing.  No one to keep the wolves away. No one to stop the pilfering of designated money for tribal members who need help. Leon the Lumbee consultant and countless others were running the office off and on. It is an office staffed by tribal members who have no education nor the experience to run a federally funded housing program. They were  in everyone’s business, blatantly discriminating against all the primary families and partying down.

THE HARDING CHRONICLES

Mark Harding’s  ( former Treasurer ) reign of terror is on the record with letters from the BIA  telling him and the Council that as a tribal council member,  and the treasurer no less, he could not be awarded  contracts paid for with federal money. That would be HUD. Harding continued to openly accept contract rehab work that should have gone to tribal contractors who were struggling during the depression that was crushing us. He was a sub contractor to White companies grabbing up everything, again shutting out certified  tribal members who would have done the jobs right the first time. And to top it off, Leon was telling tribal members that they had to use Harding for the work on their homes.  It was disgusting and illegal.  Those are just a few of his  violations of federal law.

THE MOST AWESOME AUDIT

The internal audit  recently showed what everyone knew.  The Housing program, like the Tribe was the victim of years of gross mismanagement and misappropriation.  The trouble for all those mishandlers is that they were tinkering with federal dollars, and the federal government don’t look too kindly on that sort of thing.  Just ask the Narragansett and the Pequot.

So the audit was only a year of bad news and it showed that Valerie, primarily, was handing out thousands of dollars in HUD money to people who did not qualify, she had no record of anything, (applications etc) to justify doling out really huge amounts of money.  Relatives and friends got rehab contracts without insurance or licenses and of course the work was shoddy at best. Nelly has waited for years to get her storm door fixed properly.  Elders can’t get a break from these awful people.

THE 184 DEBACLE

The 184 program was the poster child for discriminatory practices that were the only consistent thing that occurred around there. A few Tobes slipped in but for the other 80%, you know the saying ” If you’re not a Frye you need not apply. “ HUD has form 903 for housing discrimination. It has NO tolerance for discrimination when its money is being spent.   Leon with his ” worst practices” busied himself in getting his friends paid and concocting strange deals.  He covered up long as he could, but when it really got hot he was fired ( he worked for the Tribe at least 4 different times, screwing things up).

Valerie was officially fired after the Costume Circus, (formally know as the Mashpee Wampanoag Pow Wow). Well she emptied the hard copy files….brilliant.  We all know you can’t erase a hard drive.  Or better yet.   Marge and Robbie have to have a record of the draw downs.  So the trail will be tracked easily. In July the 184 was shut down by HUD.  Course it didn’t show up on the website until last week.. In a letter HUD Demanded that the Tribe answer a bunch of questions.

“DON’T GIVE ‘EM NOTHING

According to our sources, Francie (Frye) and Robbie Hendricks said ” don’t give ’em nothing.”  Even if we had sovereignty,the federal government could come in and take everything out of that basement and serve everyone one with warrants etc. They can’t hide anything from them.

Anyway Robbie won’t do whats right for the Tribal members but  he wants to take on the real government?

STUNNEDED  ain’t ya boy? You should have gotten in witness protection when you could.

It gets worse.The so called Housing Commission is just as guilty of wrong doing because they are supposed to monitor the department, who was hired  and basically keep them in check. The Commission itself was corrupt with the mother and daughter team of Carole Lopez and Tah Tah whose erratic behavior and mental health issues are known Cape wide.  As the tribal secretary, she should have nothing to do with that entity.  Se has reportedly taken HUD money allocated for tribal members in need while making over $80K. More troubling is what tribal members witnessed Tah Tah doing.  Very very troubling. She needs help not a cover up. She should not be on the council.

The Chair of the Commission has been the chair for over 5 years and never did a damned thing.  She whispered and whined but she did not lift a finger to stop the misappropriation to council members, their kids and other family members or tribal members who did not need the help and would not qualify.

What happens next should not be a surprise, but we guarantee Francie or Robbie won’t be denying the federal government  anything they ask for.

 

 

 

 

Signs of the Times

There it is for all to see at the junction of route 130 and 28.  I can’t help but think that it is there for Mashpee folks to see, and Natives in particular.

While I don’t know the origin of the signs, the wording does suggest that the author has some intimate knowledge of the subject, either through involvement or investigation.  The characterization of the Mashpee Wampanoag casino plans as a “Ponzi scheme” is apt and deadly close to the mark.  Boston businessman and swindler Carlo “Charles” Ponzi bilked willing investors out of what would amount to a quarter billion in today’s dollars.  The Mashpee Tribe’s unwilling marks are not far behind.  Ponzi was, sadly, an amateur in comparison.

There are dimensions to the casino scheme that we can only speculate about, because we mere rank and file Tribe members are forbidden to know anything about the machinations of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Commission.  Meanwhile, corruption abounds.  We all should know about the cronyism, misuse of funds, employment irregularities, and so forth, but let’s look at what future investigations may reveal.

  • Kickbacks.  not really anything new, but stuff that the IRS may want to know about.
  • Bribery, extortion, and blackmail, oh my!
  • Payments and perks “under the table.”  More fodder for the IRS.
  • Money laundering.
  • Offshore financial activities.
  • Misuse of Tribal credit cards.

How can I say those things?  Well, when the activities of the Gaming Commission (Cromwell & Co.) are veiled in secrecy, what else can you do but speculate the worst?  I challenge Cromwell and his cronies to dispel my suspicions and provide solid proof that any of the above items are untrue.  I’m waiting…

Oh the irony

The BIA continues to ignore the abuse of Native people by their own governments.

The BIA folks are at the Echo Chamber to hear testimony on the changes planned to the tribal recognition process.  That’s all it is.  It’s certainly no endorsement of this administration as Shovel Ready Ceddie has tried to spin.

The irony of the whole thing is the fact that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is responsible for setting the standards so high that most tribes could not meet the  criteria. More ironic is the fact that Shovel Ready Ceddie wasn’t on the roll at the time, didn’t know what the roll was and had to be schooled on the importance of heritage and getting his paperwork done.  

By the way…the real Indians of the tribe have left the building. That’s well known.

And this new process makes it harder to get recognition because you have one shot and that’s it.Most tribes have no backers and cannot participate because they have no money.

The people who are responsible for our remarkable trek, many have passed on and those alive are appalled at our status. None of them are going to be there today, so expect Jessie to start making up stuff when no one can answer.  Maybe Navajo Joe will say something.

You have to figure that other than a free trip to Cape Cod, the BIA bureaucrats have to be a little curious bout all the crap heaped upon us by Shovel Ready Ceddie and his band of criminals .

 The money laundering is intriguing.

The debt screams investigation.  

Will they talk about how the BIA can’t take the land into trust?

The inability to get  land into trust defies the legal  validation of government sovereignty.

The whistle-blowers should be lining up.

The BIA will blow off questions saying this is about recognition….but you better believe this afternoon, the BIA folks will all be lined up to get on the boat to the Vineyard with Navajo Joe.

Where are the Indians ?

A Native from another tribe sent a video of the 2014 MWT pow wow to a family member back home and the recipient said, ” Where are the Indians?” Well ask Shovel Ready Ceddie. Each year, the boycott of  the tribal homecoming becomes more and more blatant.  And each year Shovel Ready Ceddie. imports more of his Narragansett buddies to enjoy our $120,000 costume party, complete with drummers and everything.

So we’re not being judged, it’s Shovel Ready Ceddie’s branding of the tribe

Annawon Weeden, a fixture at the PW is a tribal member, dancer & actor seen with Native Director Chris Eyre, was not at the annual event

that has really caused problems.And every year we can count on Dean Staten appearing in the newspaper photos of our pow wow.  He’s a great dancer and a really nice guy, but he’s a Narragansett after all.  You would think someone would say something to the CCT..

Since SRC is not a real Indian, our pow wow has gone from being a celebrated homecoming to a disorganized mess.  Only tribal children participate in any real numbers.  Let’s review this years fiasco.

First there was the monsoon.Not only did Shovel Ready Ceddie ignore it, and the danger  to the participants and vendors he applied PR spin saying it was a ” cleansing. ” Jeez, didn’t do him much good did it?

Each on the pow wow committee was paid $900 so no one was really in charge.  Cassie Jackson was the only one who took any responsibility for anything.  The others couldn’t be found.

The Arbor was not honored either. It was hard to keep any protocols together with a handful of people in charge.  Chiefie did his best.

It’s so sad.

Flying high

They just can’t get enough.  Shovel Ready Ceddie, his sophisticated wife The First lady, Melissa Hill, Yvonne Frye Avant, Trish Keliinui, the brand new Indian named Green who was the foreman on the Echo Chamber ( that had to be rebuilt)….all jumped on a Genting private jet for another lavish trip….

To view the $900,000 a month redo of the architectural plan for the casino that will never be built.It’s so outrageous it’s not worth talking about…our people need jobs, training, our kids need scholarships and tutoring and these people are cheap tricks for Genting.

Money laundering.

Oh No Dr. Jo flees empty & funky surroundings

Shovel Ready Ceddie and pal Jessie photo opt on fancy exercise equipment in the funky and empty tribal building.

The MWT Tribal Administrator returned from his 2 week vacation and tendered his resignation.  Everyone was betting (literally) that he would quit.He said he couldn’t do his job properly because the council and department heads go around him and do as they please.  He tried to put best practices in place, but the Fryebal Council does not adhere to anything but hiring relatives who never come to work and can never be fired.He said there are no rules to follow.  He was not allowed to do his job.  It’s a unfortunate for us, because the chance to govern ourselves again has been destroyed by families who are incapable of leading…and everyone openly says it now.

Shovel Ready Ceddie was not able to move the flaky agenda forward to silence tribal members and force certain council members to kau tau to Genting.They never got to it or changed their minds for now.

They did have to talk about the filthy bathrooms and total lack of cleanliness in the Echo Chamber. Imagine the worst filth smeared everywhere and that’s what you have all over the place. Someones doing it on purpose apparently.  The few Elders that go there complain bitterly about the filth.  Guess who the janitors are….right. Always walking around outside instead of cleaning up.  There’s no standard to meet with Shovel Ready Ceddie in charge.  Why was this discussed in the meeting instead of handled by whoever is in charge.  Disgusting.

Poor Dr.Jo.  We actually thought he was going to set a record….but he didn’t. It was a mere 8 month before he broke camp.

The merry-go-round of senior staff continues.Only the entrenched in the corruption stay on saying,“I ain’t done nothing wrong.”  The finance situation was another issue, the shady money, and Tah Tah Maddness scared the Bejesus outta  poor Dr. Jo. Can you imagine trying to cope with Tah Tah’s mood swings and screaming?

Others are also leaving as the the new girl Diedra Lopes, a big big fan of Shovel Ready Ceddie, takes over the imploding Housing Department.  The illegal acts that took place  in Housing are hair raising. So it’s hard to imagine who would be crazy enough to leave a decent job to take a job where federal funding has been misappropriated by so many. Clearly she did not see or hear about the audit.

Well it’s no surprise that the girl has no experience in housing, let alone federal regulations.  She does have experience in the corrections field.

That may actually come in handy soon.